Airport Security? Here's a Loophole Big Enough To Drive a Litre of Evian Through

You'd think with the arrest of folks, mostly in London, on suspicion of planning a massive plot to blow up ten passenger jets in the sky, that airport security would be rather button-down, at least for a few weeks.

And, of course, major, new security rules for passengers involving gels and liquids were instituted immediately in the U.S.  So imagine my surprise when I flew out of a couple of airports last week and this week (Minneapolis-St. Paul and Las Vegas) and I found that as far as bringing gels and liquids on board planes, the line of defense stopped at the security check point.

At my gate at MSP airport, the gate agent read a paragraph over the public address system reminding us no gels or liquids were permitted in our carry-on luggage.  But there was no screening process to ascertain we were abiding by those rules.  And any of us could have bought any manner of liquids or gels in dozens of airport shops.  Or, worse yet, an evil-doer could have collected dangerous liquids from a confederate inside the airport. 

"Excuse me," I said to the gate agent, "but how do you know I don't have any of the prohibited stuff in my carry-on bag?"

"We don't," she admitted.  And then she paused and said, "It's sort of an honor system."

"So the bad guys are on the honor system, too?"

She laughed and said, "I guess so."

But then, perhaps fearing I wasn't taking things seriously enough, she added, "Well, there might be random TSA agents walking around various gates checking bags."

Not that I could see.

It's no secret that, for all intents and purposes, airlines don't screen cargo going into the belly of commercial jet planes.  (We rely on a "trusted shipper" list--sort of an honor system for cargo shippers.) Airport employees are sometimes badly screened.  And television crews and government agents too often succeed in slipping such things as guns and weapons past security check points.

But why this fiction that Uncle Sam (or anyone else) is making sure no liquids or gels are getting into passenger compartments?  I know there simply aren't enough security or airline personnel to do a second check of hand luggage at gates.  But let's drop the rule and figure out a way to make sure whatever can be purchased in an an airport on the "secure" side of the screening process is, indeed, secure.